Hermes

OceanSound

I don't think they were drivers

sheramber

 Hermes tracking messages are rubbish.

Despite handing the parcel to me through an open door the tracking minutes later showed 'left in porch'. I do not have a porch. 

annatorso

TomDeacon said:

Last month our local driver decided that he was’t going to deliver to us or our neighbours anymore. He did this without warning or having the courtesy to speak to us. We only found out when parcels we expected had been returned to the retailer with a note saying that the householder no longer wanted the goods. This was a lie.  Subsequently he told other neighbours that he doesn’t want to drive his new van down our lane. The lane is fine and we have no issues with anyone else. 

We took this up with Hermes customer services who promised to investigate but they have not. Their primary purpose appears to be to deflect and prevaricate until you give up. The local depot also claimed to have inspected the lane but clearly this is also a lie.
It now appears, after some research, that there is an issue, particularly in rural areas, where Hermes allow their drivers to decide who they will deliver to because they are using their own vehicles. This policy seems to be endorsed by the entire organisation.

Wow, this is a new one on me. We live in a rural area but have been lucky with Hermes - our delivery driver is fantastic, but I know plenty of others who've had bad experiences. I guess it's the luck of the draw unfortunately. For us, we've always had issues with Yodel.....don't get me started!!!!

billy2shots

Most/all delivery drivers (in this context) are paid per package. As are the delivery 'company'

Driving long distances or to time consuming addresses is just not cost affective for them so they will find a reason not to go or hold onto a package until other nearby addresses come through. 

My friend has a Ltd company set up subcontracting/franchise from Hermes and has a few drivers deliver for him. The other day he was showing me all kind of stats about number of deliveries and average delivery time. 

The take away from this was packages being delivered at the rate of 1 package every 4 minutes. I couldn't believe that. 90-120 packages per driver per day. 

Now factor in the time and fuel having to travel further out to deliver one or two packages and you can see why they act the way they do. 

sheramber

In our rural area the driver often holds   on to the parcel until he has a few to deliver. it does not pay him to travel 20 miles to deliver one parcel for  a few pence per delivery.

One driver told me he had a parcel to deliver to an address  over 200 miles away. How is he expected to fit that in with X number of deliveries for the  day. He gets paid for each delivery so no payment for all that journey time.

Delivering in a town with several deliveries close by is  one thing. Delivering to spread out properties is another.

Mnoee

sheramber said:

One driver told me he had a parcel to deliver to an address  over 200 miles away. 

That's the distance between London and Leeds. There's no way this is correct. 

OceanSound

Mnoee said:

sheramber said:

One driver told me he had a parcel to deliver to an address  over 200 miles away. 

That's the distance between London and Leeds. There's no way this is correct. 

If driver has deliveries in Leeds s(he) can visit that non-existent Cornish Pasty shop at Leeds train station - same as one of our former Prime Minister's did.

sheramber

Mnoee -- 216.6 miles actually.  When you live in far north of Scotland long distances are part of life.

PeteMc

My weekday Hermes courier is excellent.  The weekend one seems to be in a speed contest whenever he knocks and runs back to his car.

Mnoee

sheramber said:

Mnoee -- 216.6 miles actually.  When you live in far north of Scotland long distances are part of life.

Fair enough. 216 miles from Thurso and you're in Aberdeen! Whichever way you want to say it, it's about a five hour drive each way and literally half the country. There's no way a courier would cover that sort of area.